Hannah Einbinder

Hannah Einbinder (born May 21, 1995) is an American actress and stand-up comedian. She is best known for her starring role as struggling comedy writer Ava Daniels in the HBO Max dramedy series Hacks, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award, as well as four Golden Globe Award nominations.

Early life and education

Einbinder is the daughter of original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman and writer/director Chad Einbinder. She grew up in Los Angeles in a Reform Jewish family.

As a teenager, Einbinder was a competitive cheerleader. She graduated from Beverly Hills High School and went on to study broadcast journalism at Chapman University before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in television writing and production. At Chapman, Einbinder joined the school's improv team and had her first experience with stand-up comedy when she opened for Nicole Byer for a campus show.

Career

In 2019, Einbinder appeared in the Just for Laughs festival's New Faces showcase and was named by National Public Radio as one of the 10 standout comedians to watch. She was also named one of Vulture's best new up-and-coming comedians to watch in 2019; she was recognized for "her refreshingly absurdist charm." The same year, she was among the "New Faces of Comedy" at Just For Laughs.

In March 2020, she made her national television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and at the time was the youngest person to do a stand-up set on the show. It was the show's last on-stage stand-up performance for fifteen months, as the COVID-19 pandemic began soon after the episode aired.